


Flying Carpet Detour

by sophinisba



Series: Three Travelers that Never Landed on the Lost Island [1]
Category: Aladdin (1992), Lost
Genre: Character of Color, Community: purimgifts, Crossover, F/M, Muslim Character, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-03-19
Updated: 2008-03-19
Packaged: 2017-10-05 21:54:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/46396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophinisba/pseuds/sophinisba





	Flying Carpet Detour

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Roga](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roga/gifts).



Well, fine then, let him spend another evening with Khalil, the new vizier who had to stick his nose in everything. It wasn't as if Jasmine had nothing better to do than lie around in the royal bedroom, waiting for the sultan to join her. It wasn't as if it bothered her.

Jasmine was starting to find the palace air suffocating, again. When she'd first met Aladdin he was the one who took her away from all that, who taught her to fly, taught her to be free. But their marriage had turned him into a prince, and her father's death had turned him into Sultan of Agrabah. And once that had happened he'd gotten soft, lazy. These days he spent hours at a time lying on a divan, feeding candied dates to Abu or laughing at the Genie's tired old comedy routines. Sometimes Jasmine wondered how Aladdin would fare if an enemy came after him again – he seemed to have lost all the quick wits and quick moves of the boy she'd fallen in love with.

Things had only gotten worse since Khalil's arrival a few weeks ago. Now all Aladdin wanted to do was let someone else feed _him_ the candied dates.

Well, no matter, she could go out for some air on her own.

The carpet was waiting for her on the balcony, as usual. It had been lying flat and despondent, but when Jasmine stepped outside it immediately perked up; it hovered a few inches off the floor, sending a ripple through itself to simulate wind and movement despite the oppressive stillness of the air around them.

Jasmine sighed to think it had been nearly a year since she and Aladdin had gone out for a ride together.

"I need a change of scenery," she told the carpet as knelt down, drawing her fingers affectionately through one of its tassels, "and maybe a change of company. Is there still any part of the world that's new? If there's a world that even Aladdin hasn't seen, that's where I'd like to go."

So the carpet took her farther than she'd ever gone before, so high that she shivered with the cold and so fast that she clutched at the tassels for dear life. But when it slowed again the air was warm and clear, and it set her down on a beach of clean white sand. Within minutes a group of strangers had gathered around her, and though all of them were talking, Jasmine couldn't make out a word.

"I don't understand," she told them. "Please, where are we?"

At first everyone went silent, as they continued to stare at her, but then a man with dark curls and a kind, handsome face stepped forward and offered her his hand.

"Peace be with you," he said, and though his accent was strange, Jasmine was delighted that at last someone was speaking to her in words she recognized. As princess and later sultana Jasmine was used to receiving visitors from faraway lands, so she had learned patience and concentration for understanding other dialects, and knew how to make her own speech simpler and more formal, less particular to Agrabah.

"Peace be with you," she answered clearly, smiling at the stranger despite her continued apprehension.

"Are you hurt, madame?"

"No, I am lost and confused, but the landing was gentle."

"Then you are lucky –"

He was interrupted by one of the others, a tall man with short dark hair and the air of one who likes to be in charge, and he called Jasmine's new friend Sayid.

"Sayid, is that you?" Jasmine asked when he had answered.

"Yes, my name is Sayid Jarrah."

"And I am Jasmine of Agrabah." She held out her hand and he kissed it respectfully, but she sensed that the names meant nothing to him

"How did you get to this island, Sayid Jarrah? Did you fly here from our part of the world, as I did today?"

"No, that is, not on a direct flight." He smiled but Jasmine did not really understand. "I left Iraq years ago to live in Europe. Later I lived in Australia, and I was on my way from there to Los Angeles with these others when we crashed over this island."

"I thought _I_ was a great traveler and a woman of the world, but I have never heard of some of these places you name. And you have lived in so many countries, and you speak their languages. You must be a very special man. And I think travel must be much easier in your time than it is in mine." For she had understood by then that the carpet hadn't just taken her across space, but through time as well.

"In some ways," he said. "We have" – he said a word that Jasmine didn't understand – "that can take us from one country to another faster than ever before. But every time I travel there are more police on the borders, and none of them want to let me in."

"Sayid, I understand most of what you say, but what is a…" she tried to imitate the word she'd heard him pronounce before."

"An airplane? It is a flying machine. It takes us through the air, between countries and over the oceans. Most of us here were riding on an airplane that broke apart over this island. For months we have been trying to get away, but since we have no airplane and no boat worthy of the great ocean, we are stranded here."

"My airplane is very small," said Jasmine, gesturing at her carpet. "It will only carry two people at most. But I believe it will take me home. Will you come with me, Sayid?"

After all, Aladdin had his viziers. Why shouldn't she have a companion of her own? She held out her hand, and Sayid took it.


End file.
